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My Life as a Teenage Robot Review/Transcript
(A clip shows a fire going out, revealing Jenny standing on a meteor of some sorts. The meteor turns to ashes and Jenny does a tough pose. Tucker then appears behind her wings, skin completely blackened, and falls to the ground in exhaustion) (Intro) '' This is another...very, very sad episode, for different reasons than ''Fairly Oddparents ''though. So far we've seen Nickelodeon as a network be mostly okay. They've ''usually ''treated their cartoons fairly, with some exceptions. Like, with ''Rugrats, they let it go on for far too long and milked it to hell and back. But that's not out of the norm in the grand scheme of things. That's what networks usually ''do. And if you blame one network for shilling a single show too much, you gotta blame em all. And of course there were shows like ''ChalkZone ''that weren't the best treated. Right around this point though, Nickelodeon just jumped off the deep end with how they treated their shows. ''Invader Zim ''for example, was brought on and then promptly cancelled, when they realized they didn't wanna a show that they wanted. But '''no show '''on the network, probably '''to this day', was ever treated as poorly as My Life as a Teenage Robot. The first season of this show had 13 episodes. Do you know how long it took Nickelodeon to air this one season? Of 13 episodes? It took them well over a year. And then they delayed the second season. And the third season only came out years ''after the show was cancelled! With a legacy in treatment like that, it makes you wonder how ''bad could this show be? And why would the network just wanna kill it so badly? Was it a gross abomination like Legend of Chamberlain Heights? Not at all. Was it antithetical to everything that Nickelodeon stood for as a network? I...I don't know how to answer that, because My Life as a Teenage Robot ''was good. More than that, it was '''damn '''good. A lot of people actually think that this is a Cartoon Network show because it was made by Rob Renzetti, and it has a lot of his trademarks and he usually works on Cartoon Network shows. ''Teenage Robot ''has got a style that you wouldn't find too alien next to ''Dexter's Laboratory ''for instance, and the two shows ''do ''share a lot of the same influences, both being heavily inspired by 1950's science fiction. ''My Life as a Teenage Robot, well, the premise is in the title. It stars a robot in the shape of a teenage girl who tries to save the world, while dealing with a typical teenage life. I have no idea why Dr. Nora wanted to make a robot shaped like a teenage girl, especially if at the start of the series she didn't want Jenny to leave her room unless the world was in danger, but I'd rather not look too ''deep into this show like that, weird things happen when you do that. ''My Life as a Teenage Robot ''has a "style" about it. It takes place in the far-flung future, similar to ''The Jetsons, but it takes a vastly different approach. Science fiction tropes and tools are very ''incidental in ''My Life as a Teenage Robot, besides Jenny herself. It goes out of its way to have a very timeless feel. Strangely enough, by capturing science fiction, from the past. A lot of the technology and just the general art direction was made from the fifties, with rounder edges, UFOs, pie-plate eyes, stuff like that. And it really works, and the show's visual appeal really makes it stand out. At least on Nickelodeon, when this style wasn't often gone for. On some level, it really does look like a lost Cartoon Network show. But no, Cartoon Network had Robotboy, which we're alllll soooo grateful for... The show that this one actually reminds me most of though is Kim Possible, for its clever blend of action and slice-of-life high school drama. I know that slice-of-life high school drama is a major turnoff for some, but Teenage Robot ''does it really well. The more down-to-earth episodes, tend to be the better ones. I don't think that the uh...topics are much more "dramatic" than usual, this isn't ''As Told by Ginger. No, Teenage Robot ''is a show that knows how to use its premise. The awkwardness of going through high school is exemplified even more so by also being a teenage robot. You have to deal with shit like lasers going off and starting huge fires that almost demolish the entire school! As well as trying to be popular in spite of it all. This show works because Jenny herself is an amazing character. Personality-wise, I'd say that she's okay, she's not the most 'unique 'thing that I've ever seen, as this is another show that's clearly trying to have the "everygirl," but this time she just happens to be a robot. But let's say that this show has gone...way far above and beyond something like say, ''Doug, or even As Told by Ginger. What makes Jenny shine is that she can become anything, and that leads to all kinds of interesting visuals. Action scenes are never ''boring, because Jenny can become a new contraption in each and every scene. The other characters, unfortunately, don't fare as well. Brad and Tucker I like. They make good friends for Jenny and they do help carry plots along rather well. Although Brad is ''probably an unfortunate name to have, here and now in the 2010s. And the less I say about Sheldon, the better! I '''never '''liked this character, except in a few remote appearances. His main schtick is that he causes problems because he has a crush on Jenny, doesn't know how to take "no" for an answer, and manages to do one minor thing towards the end that apparently makes up for his lack of social skills. And uh...'STALKING! '''He does get better over time, but towards the beginning, his main appearances are the weakest in the ''entire ''series. Then there's Dr. Nora. She seems to be good-hearted but, ''really, really ''confused and really out-of-date. She's an easy character to like and an easy character to not like depending on who you are. Jenny's real name for instance is XJ-9, and we learn that this isn't a coincidence later. Models XJ 1 through 8 exist, and they all have personalities kinda like Jenny, that just got ''abandoned at some point. So...I ha-I have no idea... what Dr. Nora's thought process is as an inventor. It-it has to be something that I can't comprehend because she also did experiments on sentient Communist rats. Yeah, this show actually has some adult humor, but it's less subtle than we're actually used to seeing. The Broken Heart Gang is one of the villains of the show, who have turned to villainy out of rejection. One of them literally has a broken noose around their neck. Uh, there's another thing about Dr. Nora though...uh...that might make some people not like her. Uh, she kinda repeatedly calls Jenny by her birth name, XJ-9, after Jenny has insisted that her name has been changed to Jenny. '''Dr. Nora: '''Do I make myself clear, XJ-9? '''Jenny: '''Jenny. '''Dr. Nora: '''Uh, wha? '''Jenny: '''Jenny! Call me Jenny, I changed my name to Jenny, remember? Uh...in 2003, it meant something much, much different than it means in...2019. This might be uncomfortable to some people going back due to...new understanding of issues and a new political climate, being brought to light in recent years. Or, who knows, it might be ''really relatable. ''My Life as a Teenage Robot ''actually does have a trans following, and I can see this show being seen through that lens. A lot of the fish-out-of-water issues sound like something that applies, but I'm probably ''not ''the best person to talk about that. On a literal level, I-I do love this show. I don't know if it's one of my favorite Nicktoons ever, like I don't know if it's top 10 material, but it ''is ''really, really good. It's certainly better than something like ''CatDog ''or the last show I talked about. And I for the life of me, ''cannot understand why Nick was so harsh on this show. I mean, it was almost from the beginning! Before it even had a chance to stand on its own. I guess this is the sort of time when something needed to pull in the Spongebob ''numbers to stay alive. Or, who knows? Maybe the network had a bias against Rob Renzetti. Unlike some other Nickelodeon cult classics like ''Catscratch, you can buy the whole series of this show easily, and I'd highly recommend doing that. Sometimes shows are a lot better in hindsight, and one thing that certainly helps is not having to wait over a year for just season 1! Oh, one other thing that I do think really deserves mentioning: My Life as a Teenage Robot ''has one of the '''best '''background music tracks that I've ever heard in a Western cartoon. ''(A bit of the background music is played) I don't mean like the music numbers, as far as I can tell, the show doesn't have ''any, unless you count the theme song which is awesome and it'll be stuck in my head throughout this entire marathon. No, I'm talking about the music being played in the background during the action scenes or even during the dialogue. The synthy techno-pop stuff just enhances every scene of the show, and it's '''constantly '''on point. I could even listen to it on its own. It's a shame that even today's cartoons don't really sell their background music on CD. I mean some cartoons like ''Spongebob ''or ''Ren & Stimpy ''have 'licensed 'soundtracks, like full-on stock background music. But more and more with shows like this one or ''Friendship is Magic ''or ''Avatar, those working on the background music are putting a lot of time and passion into their work, and when you make something like this, it should definitely be recognized. And I mean, who wouldn't want this kind of thing on CD? Is My Life as a Teenage Robot ''the greatest show ever? No, but it-it's definitely a really, really good one. And, I think we can all agree, it deserved far, far better than it got from the network. This is probably...n-no, I'm gonna say it, this is probably the 'worst 'that Nickelodeon has 'ever 'treated a show. And I have no idea why. '''Announcer: '''Next on Nickelodeon, it's- ''(Shows clip of Danny Phantom theme song) (End Credits Theme: My Life as a Teenage Robot Theme Song) Category:Nick-o-Rama Category:Transcripts